


(dis)enchanting

by thenewromantics



Category: Girl Meets World
Genre: F/M, also hella lucadora and maya/farkle/riley friendship, basically the whole squad is here - Freeform, but smarkle will be a background ship bc i love them, make no mistake this is rucas af, the cinderella story au that no one asked for
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-21
Updated: 2017-02-20
Packaged: 2018-09-26 00:10:44
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,939
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9853118
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thenewromantics/pseuds/thenewromantics
Summary: in which lucas friar is invisible and spills all his secrets to an online anonymous best friend, jexica. and riley matthews is the most popular girl in school who feels most comfortable talking to an online cowboy. one night, the homecoming masquerade dance is about to change everything.//or the rucas cinderella story au that no one asked for.





	

**Author's Note:**

> hellllo friends!!! i've had this idea swimming around in my head for a while and thought that it was finally time to share it with the world. basically i love a cinderella story and i love rucas, so here i am. i won't say too much, because i think the fic kinda speaks for itself, but if you've seen the movie, then you'll probably see where this is going!!! enjoy!!!

**_M O N D A Y_ **

“Lucas! Lucas! Were you listening to a word I was saying?” Isadora Smackle’s voice is loud and disruptive and it effectively snaps Lucas from his daze, and he focuses his attention back on his best friend, who’s staring at him with a cocked eyebrow and an annoyed look on her face. He grins sheepishly, knowing that he’d been caught. 

“No, sorry, Smackle. You were talking about your chemistry class though, right?” Lucas takes a sip of his water, desperately trying to keep his eyes on his friend, and now the brunette girl three tables down from them. He watches Smackle roll her eyes, seemingly knowing exactly where Lucas’ attention was, but she didn’t comment. 

“Yes. That Farkle boy was assigned to be my lab partner again and he seems to think that he’s far more intelligent than I am, even though that is completely not true.” Lucas chuckles, watching the exasperated look on Smackle’s face as she recalls her interactions with Farkle Minkus. The story of Isadora Smackle and Farkle Minkus’ academic rivalry was a well known one to Lucas, and it definitely wasn’t uncommon for him to hear stories about their intellectual face offs during class. “That was all I was going to say on the subject, you may now go back to pining for Riley Matthews across the lunchroom.” 

“I was not pining.” Lucas states, tossing a french fry into his mouth. This statement earns him yet another eyeroll, and Smackle tosses her gaze over her shoulder for a minute, looking at Riley’s lunch table before directing her attention back to Lucas. 

“Of course not, you just have been staring at the wall behind her for the past 15 minutes.” Lucas looks down at his lunch tray, ignoring the way that his cheeks flame with blush at Smackle’s words. “I’ve been your best friend for years Lucas, I know more than anyone how you feel about her.” Smackle’s words are short and blunt, but Lucas knows that they aren’t meant to be anything other than a fact. 

“I wasn’t pining, I was admiring. There’s a difference.” Smackle merely shakes her head at him, and he takes this opportunity to flick his gaze behind her to where Riley sits with a couple of her friends, a wide smile on her face as she watches her best friend tell an animated story. 

The story of Riley Matthews and Lucas Friar went back even further than the story of Farkle and Smackle, however, it was much shorter. They’re nothing more than acquaintances, if you could even call them that. Lucas was unsure if Riley even knew his name, they had only had a few encounters over the many years that they had attended the same school together. Smackle always liked to make his feelings for her more than they were, she said it was love, Lucas preferred admiration. 

“I don’t see why you don’t just ask her out Lucas, what’s the worst that could happen?” He threw her a look and she sighed, putting her fork down. “I mean, besides her saying no, of course. Not that she would say no.” Smackle grimaced, realizing the hole she was slowly digging herself into. Lucas shook his head, taking another sip of his water. 

“I’m not gonna ask her out, besides she has a boyfriend.” Lucas practically gagged at the thought of Riley Matthews’ boyfriend. Charlie Gardner. Charlie wasn’t necessarily a bad guy, he just was one of those guys that seemed too good to be true. So, it didn’t surprise anyone when Charlie Gardner, captain of the football team, straight A student, mayor’s son, started dating Riley Matthews, cheerleader and student body president, at the beginning of junior year. 

“No she doesn’t.” Smackle looked confused, and the confusion she had written all over her face was the same confusion that Lucas felt at her words. Sure, two weeks into the school year and he hadn’t seen Charlie and Riley together at all, but he figured that had to do more with conflicted schedules than anything else. 

“Charlie…” Lucas started and he saw the realization cross Smackle’s face before she smirked, shaking her head lightly, popping a carrot into her mouth. 

“Her and Charlie broke up over the summer.” Smackle said with a quirk of her eyebrow. Lucas was even more confused now. He would hardly say he’s someone who pays attention to high school drama, but Riley and Charlie were the most popular couple in school, and no doubt something like their break up would spread like wildfire throughout the student body. Also, Smackle was even less inclined to listen to drama than he was, so her knowing this information before him, was a new one. 

“Is, how do you know that?” Smackle shrugged, adjusting her glasses on her nose and taking a small sip of her water. 

“I’m more surprised that you didn’t know that, considering your stalker-ish observations of Ms. Matthews,” Lucas groaned, rolling his eyes, “but to answer your question, I merely overheard two girls talking about it in my English class the other day. I never mentioned it to you because I assumed that you already knew.” 

They fell into a silence after that, Lucas taking a minute to consider Smackle’s words. He wondered why he himself hadn’t heard anything about Riley and Charlie, unless it happened so early in the summer that by the time school rolled around, everyone had forgotten about it. It’s not like he would have heard about it when it happened, he didn’t connect much with people outside of school, and he was hardly popular enough to be friends with Riley on Facebook. 

“Still, despite all that. I’m not going to ask her out. She probably doesn’t even know my name.” Lucas said, shrugging his shoulders lightly, crumbling the napkin that he held in his hand. “I’m not really in the mood to embarrass myself and also be rejected.” 

“I’m not so sure why you’re so sure that she would say no, Lucas. I know that you’ve chased after me for years, and while I hold absolutely no interest in you in that way, you’re a very great catch if I do say so myself.” There was a smile on Smackle’s lips, and Lucas couldn’t help but chuckle lightly. Smackle had always joked that Lucas was madly in love with her, because of how nice he was, and she couldn’t help but tease him about it every once in awhile. 

“Thanks Is, but I just don’t want to okay. I know I’ve liked her for a long time, but it’s just easier to not even try. That way I can just admire her from afar, and then in nine months when we graduate, I can slowly just forget about her.” Smackle considered this and while she looked like she wanted to disagree, she didn’t say anything in response and merely shrugged, wiping her face with her napkin and pushing her tray away from her. 

The lunch period ended a couple seconds later and Smackle quickly stood, biding Lucas goodbye and rushing off to her AP History class, leaving Lucas to slowly make his way from the cafeteria to his next class by himself. 

Exiting the cafeteria, he sees the person in front of him stop and he doesn’t have enough time to stop himself before he bumps into her, his heart jumping into his chest when he realizes who exactly it was that he just bumped into. 

“I’m - so sorry.” He stutters, the words jumping off of his tongue erratically before he has a chance to properly formulate them. 

“It’s my fault, I shouldn’t have stopped in the middle of the crowded doorway, no need to apologize.” Riley Matthews sends him a soft smile, their eyes meeting for a second. Lucas opens his mouth to respond but before he can, she disappears into the crowd of students. 

Lucas sighs, just another day in paradise. 

**…**

As Lucas strolls into his last period history class, he pays no mind to the rest of the students that have already filed into the classroom. He slips into his usual desk, second row near the middle of the classroom, and immediately pulls out the book that he was currently reading. His attention his only shifted from the page that he had been reading when voices near him make him lose his train of thought. 

“All I’m saying Riles, is that if you want me to take care of Charlie, then I will.” His eyes snap up from the page he was reading and he immediately stiffens in his chair when Riley Matthews, Maya Hart and Farkle Minkus are all standing in front of him, mingling near the three open desks that were scattered around Lucas. 

While the three of them had been sitting there all semester thus far, usually they were there before him and didn’t even spare him a glance when he slipped into the seat behind Maya, Riley’s best friend. It was rare for him to arrive after him, and now that they were standing in front of him, none of them having sat down yet, it was hard not to listen to their conversation. 

“No Maya, I don’t need you to do anything, so what, he went to a college party and kissed some girl a week before school started, and I happened to find out from my uncle who was at the party instead of from Charlie. I broke up with him, it’s over, now I can just focus on moving on.” Lucas tried his hardest to make them think he wasn’t listening, not that they had noticed him sitting there, but he couldn’t help but visibly look shocked at this revelation. 

A mere two hours ago he had been sure that Riley and Charlie were still dating, and now he had found out that he had cheated on her and didn’t even have the guts to tell her. He was now looking at them from his desk, and he was relieved that none of them had noticed he was sitting there, or they just didn’t care. 

“I’m with Riley on this one Maya, let Charlie suffer in the fact that he ruined his relationship. It would probably hurt him way more to see Riley moving on and being happy without him.” Their other best friend, Farkle, said, raising his eyebrow at Maya, who merely scowled. Lucas was unsure of the exact dynamic between the three friends, but from Lucas’ standpoint as an observer, it always seemed like Farkle was closer with Riley then he was with Maya. 

“Fine. I won’t touch him, but if he does anything like that again…” 

“Cheat on me? Well he’s not going to get that chance, because I’m never going to get back with him.” Riley said pointedly, taking her seat diagonally from Lucas to make her point. Maya merely threw her hands up in surrender and took her own seat. They still hadn’t noticed Lucas there, but he still looked back down at the book in his hand when Farkle moved next to him, not wanting any of them to think that he had been listening. 

Luckily, they continued to pretend like he wasn’t even there. When Mr. Matthews, Riley’s father, came in to begin their lesson, Lucas began to zone out like he usually did. He always tried to pay attention to the board and the lesson, but his eyes would almost always float to the brunette sitting in front of Farkle. 

Lucas liked to think that his admiration for Riley went beyond her physical appearance, while Riley was an extremely beautiful girl, Lucas also admired her dedication to her school work and the kindness that she had for others. Sitting in her father’s class, all he could do was stare at the way that her tongue was peeking out between her teeth, her pencil absentmindedly tapping against her lips as she listened to her father, occasionally writing something down quickly on her paper. 

When the bell rang, Lucas snapped out of his daze and realized that he hadn’t written anything of his own down for notes. Sighing to himself, he slowly packed up his notebook and pencil, only partially listening to what was going on around him, he heard both Maya and Farkle wish Riley goodbye, exiting the room quickly after the bell had rung. He could vaguely hear the rest of his classmates filing out, and when he looked up from his backpack, the only person still in the room was Riley Matthews. 

She was looking ahead of her, her eyes looking a little lost as she bit her bottom lip, almost as if she was contemplating something. Lucas slowly stood from his desk, moving towards the door, wondering if she would make any kind of acknowledgement to his presence, or if she believed that she was alone. 

He paused briefly in front of her desk, taking a moment to get a good look at her. She had her hair piled on the top of her head in a loose bun, curls of it falling and framing her face, her lips were pink and she had a light, natural tint to her cheeks, almost as if she had been standing out in the cold. That lost look in her eyes was still there though, and Lucas almost wondered if the look was from sadness, or if it was something else entirely. 

“Are you okay?” He wasn’t sure what prompted the question, but as soon as the words left his mouth, she almost jumped in her chair, shaking her head softly to herself, a look of embarrassment crossing her face. 

“Oh yeah, I’m fine. Just, zoning off.” She gave him a small smile, standing up from her desk and begin to shove things into her bag, still looking embarrassed that she had been caught. Lucas merely nods, not knowing exactly how to respond. 

Turning on his heel, he exits the room, pausing in the doorway to look back at her for a moment, just in time to see her take a shaky breath, her eyes closed, like she’s holding back tears. 

The scene breaks his heart a little bit, but there was really nothing he could do about it. She didn’t even know his name, so with an ache in his heart and a weird burning sensation in the back of his throat, he turned on the classroom and entered the hallway, letting the rest of the student body, swallow him whole. 

**…**

Later that night, Lucas sits in front of his open laptop, mindlessly doing homework, and avoiding the faint sounds of his mother and father downstairs. He couldn’t tell what they were talking about, but he had heard his name thrown around a couple minutes ago, and the sound of it slipping from his father’s mouth was enough to send his skin crawling. He was broken from his mindless word by a ding from his phone, the message making his heart jerk in his chest. 

**jexica:** hey cowboy, how was your day

It always shocked him that he was so close to someone that he didn’t know the identity of. At the beginning of the previous year, at the insistence of Smackle who was very very sure that Lucas needed more friends, he signed up for the anonymous pen pal service offered by the Abigail Adams social media network. The idea was to get people who might never meet in real life to become friends, and while Lucas was fairly certain most people didn’t use the service, him and his anonymous friend, Jexica, had spoken nearly every single day since they were matched up. 

**cowboy:** it was alright, mondays are never great, my parents are talking about me downstairs, but other than that, it wasn’t awful. how was your day?

It was crazy to him, that he was able to spill secrets to her that he had never told anyone, Smackle included, but in the year that they had been friends, or text buddies, whatever their relationship was, he had learned how easy it was to talk to her. And how much he enjoyed talking to her. They never spoke about their friends or classes too much, not wanting to find out who the other was, so they kept the conversation to non school topics. 

**jexica:** my day was alright, i’m sorry about your parents, they still don’t know about the whole vet thing do they?

**cowboy:** nope, no idea. and i really have no idea how to tell them...i know i can’t avoid it forever, but i’m gonna wait until i have a start applying. 

With a sigh, Lucas lets his phone fall from his fingers, not wanting to think too much about his parents and their obvious disinterest in his future and what he wants to do with it. He didn’t have the energy to get upset about it anymore, even if Jexica was probably the one person who he would feel comfortable opening up to. 

**jexica:** well, keep your chin up. your parents shouldn’t stop you for achieving your dream. if you want to be a vet, that’s what you should be. i wish i could stay up and talk, but i have an early morning thing tomorrow morning, but we’ll talk tomorrow, cowboy. don’t let the sadness get you down. 

And with that, the little blue online alert next to her name faded, and Lucas was left with his own thoughts once more, wanting nothing more than to open his bedroom, start running and never come back. 

But tomorrow is another day.

**Author's Note:**

> thank you so much for reading friends!! let me know what you think!!! i'll be kicking it back with another update very soon.


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